Tom, I believe it is as Alicia says:
either ignorance (they wouldn't recommend
meter if it had a parking ticket on it) or
else the by now ancient prejudices that
spawned modernism: the 19th century was
being written off for its didacticism,
sentimentality, bombast, etc., and since (as Tim
Steele points out) these qualities were showing
up in metrical and rhymed poems, the modernists
thought it might be a good idea to throw out
all infants and bathing receptacles at once.
But what do meter and rhyme have to do with
sentimentality or didacticism? These are qualities
eminently available to free verse or prose.
What slightly puzzles me is the ferocity and
vehemence of those who hate meter and rhyme. I sense
that they want cutting-edge, "transgressive," avant garde,
corrosive, ugly, violent, stuff that makes people
respond--something I also suspect they think people
won't do to meter and rhyme. They think if the poem
isn't the equivalent of screaming vomit (a good title
for one of these sorts of journals?) it isn't "real"
or "authentic."
Sigh.
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